You buy a game, beat it, get bored of it, or maybe you just didn't like it. To get some cash back in your wallet, or just to avoid the thing gathering dust on the shelf like your Rubik's cube, you figure you'll just trade the thing in. You paid a pretty penny for it when it first released, and it's still a decent game, still in pretty good shape, so while you clearly won't break even, you should be able to get a little something back, right?
Well, that all depends on the retailer you're trying to sell it back to. GameStop has something of a reputation for offering minimal amounts on certain used games, but at least they're not Amazon. The mega commerce company is offering a pithy 25 cents to customers willing to trade in their copies of Gears of War: Judgment, a shocking offer considering that game is barely a month old, and still has DLC on the way.
Granted, it hasn't been the best-selling Gears game to date, but it was considerably well received by most reviewers. Amazon's offering a slightly better, but still insulting, trade in value for the game's predecessor, Gears of War 3, for a buck forty. It gets worse when you realize they're selling used copies at a 500% increase of that.
Still, why so low? Is it listed in error? Nope, it's completely intentional. Amazon's trade-in values are determined by that same caveat that the modern economic world has been operating under since Adam Smith was schooling old world empires on laissez-faire: supply and demand.
While critics seemed to enjoy the latest Gears, players didn't, and that's reflected in its sales numbers at a measly 425,000. Compare that with the last Gears, which did 3 million in its first week alone. Ergo, if you're trying to ditch a game that such a small number of people will still want to play, you'll get peanuts for it, since Amazon won't have much better luck selling it than you.
Not to advertise, but GameStop is offering $21 for the game in good condition, plus a small percentage if you're a member of they're little Power Up club. That, and you'll save yourself the trouble of having to ship the thing.
